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 METZU MEUSE 463 stationed at Metz under Marshal Bazaine. Na- poleon III. arrived there on July 28 and as- sumed the chief command. After the defeats at Worth and Forbach, Aug. 6, about half of the French army was concentrated here, and on the 8th Marshal Bazaine assumed command. On the 14th the emperor with the vanguard left Metz and crossed the Moselle, and on the same day the first attempt of Bazaine to prepare for retreat was checked by the battle of Courcelles. The immediately succeeding battles of Mars- la-Tour on the 16th, and Gravelotte, 18th, drove the French within their fortifications, and Metz was now closely besieged by the Germans under Prince Frederick Charles. The subse- quent attempts of Bazaine to break out were defeated, the more important sorties being repulsed on Aug. 26, 31, Sept. 1, 22-23, 27, Oct. 2, and 7-8. On Oct. 27 Metz capitulated, Bazaine surrendering his entire force to Prince Frederick Charles. (See BAZAINE.) By the treaty of Frankfort, May 10, 1871, Metz was included in the cession of the Alsace-Lorraine territory to Germany. For the surrender at Metz Marshal Bazaine was tried by court mar- tial at Versailles, the duke d'Aumale presiding. At the conclusion of the trial, Dec. 10, 1873, the judges declared Bazaine guilty of the capit- ulation of Metz and of the army in the open field without doing all that was prescribed by honor and duty to avoid the surrender. He was unanimously condemned to death, and to degradation from his rank previous to his execution; but all the members of the court signed an appeal for mercy, which the duke d'Aumale in person presented to President MacMahon, who commuted Bazaine's sentence to 20 years' seclusion. He was sent to the island of Ste. Marguerite, but escaped Aug. 9, 1874. See Die Operationen der zweiten Armee vom Btginn des ITriegs Ms zur Ca- pitulation von Metz, by the baron von der Goltz (Berlin, 1873). METZF, Gabriel, a Dutch painter, born in Ley- den in 1615, died there in 1658, or according to some authorities in 1669. In his youth he settled in Amsterdam, where he rose to emi- nence as a genre painter, being distinguished for minute imitation of nature. He painted a few portraits, including one of Admiral Van Tromp now in the Louvre. His pictures bring very high prices. MEUDON. a village of France, in the depart- ment of Seine-et-Oise, built upon an eminence on the left bank of the Seine, and on the Paris and Versailles railway, 3 m. S. W. of Paris and 2 m. S. W. of Fort Issy; pop. in 1866, 5,417. During the siege of Paris, Meudon was occupied by the llth German army corps, which during the night of Jan. 13, 1871, repulsed a vehement sortie of the troops of Paris. The castle of Meudon, during the latter years of the second empire the summer residence of Prince Napoleon, was burned on Jan. 30. MEULEN, intoine Francois van der, a French artist, born in Brussels in 1634, died in Paris, 551 VOL. XL 30 Oct. 15, 1690. He was in early youth a pupil of Peter Snayers, a painter of battles, and was invited to Paris to paint campaign scenes in the life of Louis XIV. He passed the rest of his life there, and was esteemed as a painter of battles, hunting scenes, and cavalcades. MEI'KSII'S, or De Meurs, Johannes, the elder, a Dutch scholar, born at Loosduinen, near the Hague, in 1579, died in Soro, Denmark, Sept. 20, 1639. He was tutor to the sons of Barne- veldt, and in 1610 became professor of history at Ley den, and in 1611 of Greek. The states of Holland conferred on him the title of his- toriographer, but on the execution of Barne- veldt he was subjected to persecution, and in 1625 accepted the appointment of professor of history in the university of Soro. He wrote numerous monographs on Greek and Roman antiquities, and his collected works fill 12 volumes folio (Florence, 1741-'63). His son JOHANNES (1613-'54) also distinguished him- self as an antiquarian scholar. MEIRTHE-ET-MOSELLE, a N. E. department of France, in the old province of Lorraine, bor- dering on Belgium, Luxemburg, the German Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine, and the depart- ments of Vosges and Meuse; area, 2,025 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 365,137. By the treaty of Frankfort, May 10, 1871, Germany took from France almost one half of the department of Meurthe and nearly the whole of Moselle. By a law of the French national assembly, Sept. 11, 1871, the portions of Meurthe and Mo- selle remaining were united under the pro- visional name of Meurthe-et-Moselle. The principal river is the Meurthe. The surface is generally uneven, but none of the hills are more than 700 ft. high, and they are covered with forests, fruit trees, and vineyards. The soil is generally fertile, and the department is noted for the variety of its productions. Among the minerals are iron, copper, lead, building stone, and gypsum. There are some manu- factures of linen, muslin, canvas, and wool- len stuffs. It is divided into the arrondisse- ments of Nancy, Lune"ville, Toul, and Briey. Capital, Nancy. MEUSE (anc. Mosa ; Dutch, Haas; Flem. Haese), a river which rises in the department of Haute-Marne in France, and, flowing main- ly N. through Vosges, Meuse, and Ardennes, enters Belgium near Charlemont. From Na- mur it flows N. E. till near its entrance into Holland, when again it bends N., then flows N. W., and finally W. A little below Gorkum it divides into two branches, one of which takes the name of Merwede, and, after again dividing and forming with its arms the isl- and of Ysselmonde, falls into the North sea amid shoals and quicksands; while the other branch, which flows more to the south, and likewise subdivides into two smaller streams, discharges its waters by these channels into different parts of the same sea. The delta of the Meuse is larger than that of any other Eu- ropean river. Its principal tributaries are : in